Are you a member of the Hardcore On The Floor Peloton group? If so, you inspired today’s postpartum friendly 10 minute ab workout focusing on safe core exercises for women who are in a vulnerable postnatal stage. For most women, I consider you postnatal if you are within 6 months postpartum OR beyond but still healing a diastasis recti.
You see, the Hardcore Facebook group is great but shares a schedule featuring Peloton strength programming for a month with specific videos without postpartum women in mind. Multiple times a week a 10 minute core workout video is featured BUT usually these workouts are not new mom friendly especially if you’ve recently had a c-section. Seeing how many women postpartum were following the calendar, I started sharing modifications for some of the most common moves like the hollow hold.
Finally, I decided to start my own series featuring postnatal safe exercises to strengthen your core and abdominal muscles that won’t exacerbate a separation in your abs, also know as the gap that causes mummy tummy.
10-minute Postpartum Core Workout
This video is safe to do if you are 12 weeks postpartum but of course, if you notice coning or doming just skip.
Safe Moves
Moves that are safe do postpartum include heel taps, heel slides, a bridge modified side plank and bird dog which is when you’re in tabletop position and you alternate lifting opposite leg and arm. There are other moves that are safe to do as well but require extra modification. You can always do things like planks on an elevated surface or your knees but start, I saw just skip them and do a bird dog.
How long do I have to modify ab exercises postpartum?
The answer to this question is different for everyone! Did you continue to exercise during your pregnancy? Did you have a strong core going into pregnancy or did you barely recover from a previous pregnancy and still had a diastasis recti?
If you do not have a DR (check to see if you have one here), then 4 months postpartum is usually an OK time to start trying planks modified. Check to see if you notice coning or doming. If so, stay at a modified version. If not, feel free to take things back to a closer version of pre-pregnancy levels.
At a year postpartum, I still take modifications because I have a mild prolapse and a DR. I simple don’t have time to go to a physical therapist and am being lazy about starting my own at home routine to rehab my diastasis recti.
So the answer is somewhere around 40 weeks postpartum for most people… And years for others 🙂
How to I join the Hardcore On The Floor Facebook Group?
If you’d like to join the Hardcore group on Facebook, you can do so here. However, I do think our FASTer Way To Fat Loss workouts and VIP membership is WAY more effective if you are looking for fat loss and speedy results. FASTer Way is like having a personal trainer and Peloton strength classes are like group exercise.
Do you have any other postpartum ab workouts?
Yes! I have a variety of postpartum workouts that focus on pelvic floor exercises here and well as other low-impact postpartum ab workouts that focus on the transverse abdominis and pelvic floor muscles here.
How to properly do any abdominal focused exercise move postpartum
Whether you had a vaginal delivery or c-section it’s important to properly engage the transverse abdominals while working your mid-section post-delivery.
Start by lying on the floor with your knees bent. Take a deep inhale and as you exhale, lift the pelvic floor up like your lifting an elevator keeping your rib cage from flaring open and lifting your belly button up towards your collar bone. Your lower back should not be pressed again the floor but you should able to fit a finger or two in between your back the floor.
An easy way to find this ideal starting position is to do a few pelvic tilts and then find a neutral position where your hip bones are pointing towards the ceiling. This should be your starting position! Then again, take a deep inhale and as you exhale, lift up the pelvic floor maintaining a neutral spine, finding stability in your core as your transverse abdominals aka those deep core muscles wrap around your mid section and your belly button lifts up towards your collar bone. I go over this in detail here as well via video. This should be your starting position for any movements that start on your back. Avoid crunches but heel taps, heel slides are all OK!
